Whooves: The Doctor Sleeps
by Doctor Specter
Summary: Episode 4: The Doctor and Derpy are trapped between two strange worlds, being tormented  and annoyed  by the evil Dream Lord, and everything depends on the Doctor's choice.
1. Chapter 1

**The Doctor Sleeps**

The Dream Lord walked elegantly across the console room of the TARDIS, laughing with a pure evil in his voice. He had never thought, for even a moment, that tricking the Doctor into falling asleep would be so easy.

He did know, however, tricking him into believing that a fake world was real would be much, much harder, even if he managed to make him fall asleep.

The real fun, though, was that he made the slow, flying one fall asleep even faster.

"It was probably the eyes, must get very tired looking at everything with those," the Dream Lord said, now standing in front of Derpy inside of what may or may not have been a dream.

"Who are you? Why are you in my house?" Derpy asked. The last thing she needed right now was another crazy pony in her house. At least, another crazy pony that would abandon her after she took a nap, even though he promised that they'd at least get some ice cream.

"Well then, Ms. Hooves, who might you think I am?" the Dream Lord taunted, enjoying his psychological torture of the Doctor's newest companion.

"How am I supposed to…No! You're not the Doctor, are you?" Derpy asked, angry and hopeful at the same time.

"Of course not, silly pony!" the Dream Lord said, and vanished into thin air.

Derpy sighed, wishing that the Doctor hadn't abandoned her in such a boring location in the first place. The only problem was, she couldn't remember why the Doctor left her, or even the part where he left her, she could only remember being here. All she could remember is being alone, in boring old Ponyville.

Only, there weren't many ponies around anymore. They all started dying, or they moved away, and only a few crazy ponies, or the occasional super dedicated resident, remained. Derpy stayed only for the hope that, one day, the Doctor might return. She wondered how long she'd been waiting.

"Oh, I dunno, about a minute, maybe," she said to herself quietly, although the volume didn't matter, she was completely alone.

The statement, her own statement, shocked her. She could remember all of the time she's waited, years and years without the Doctor, her time with him cut short for no reason. The problem, though, was that those memories were very faint, as though she'd experienced them all while very distracted. Of course, being distracted isn't hard when one eye points in a different direction than the other, but this was a different kind of distracted. This was more like intensely distracted, the short of distracted you are when another pony is running at you for no reason, and all her memories were of the words on the signs of the shops in the vicinity of her inevitable accident. What worried her was that this distraction, if one even existed, was a mystery.

Maybe it didn't even exist. Maybe the whole world around her didn't exist.

She expelled the thought quickly, knowing how foolish the idea was. This world was real; no amount of denial or sadness could change that. The only thing that could change that was the Doctor, Who obviously wasn't interested in returning.

Things were even more confusing on his end of the deal.

The Doctor was in the TARDIS as it flew into a black hole, which could technically be said to be sucking it in. But, that would imply that the Doctor himself didn't set the TARDIS in a course to go into the black hole, which would be completely and undeniably true. The Doctor had no recollection of any events leading up to right then, and then remembered the phone call from earlier.

The Dream Lord was after him. The only problem is: who is the Dream Lord?

All he had said was that the Doctor would have to choose, which made the Doctor very confused. Then, he remembered passing out right above the TARDIS controls, in a null void. Whoever his Dream Lord was, he must have some knowledge of flying the TARDIS.

"Good job, Time Pony, you've figured me out!" the Dream Lord said mockingly after appearing from nowhere.

"So, you're the Dream Lord. I must admit, you're shorter than I expected," the Doctor said condescendingly.

"For some reason, I'd thought you'd be more original with your comebacks, silly me," the Dream Lord said, clopping over to the TARDIS controls, "Although, I do love what you've done with the place. It's just too bad I'll have to destroy it," the Dream Lord taunted, as he once again disappeared from existence, and reappeared on a balcony higher up in the TARDIS control room, "Although, who knows, this one might be the dream!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Isn't it obvious? I told you to choose! Oh, wait, I forgot, you haven't been to the other one yet, have you?"

"Other…one…" the Doctor managed to say, before he passed out of consciousness once again.

The Dream Lord walked over to his sleeping body, and said to himself, "Sweet dreams, little Doctor."

The Doctor woke up to Derpy angrily screaming at him.

"Where have you been, Doctor? I thought we were going to that planet for ice cream!" Derpy screamed, simultaneous to her giving the Doctor a hug, the act of which required a significant amount of balance on her part.

"I thought we were, too. I just had the strangest dream…" the Doctor said, shaking his head in a mixture of lack of balance and ear pain from the close-range aural attack from Derpy.

"So quick to choose, Doctor, I suppose I can just go ahead and leave right now!" the Dream Lord exclaimed, again appearing out of nothingness, before vanishing again.

"Well, that pony is certainly annoying! I wonder what he's been babbling about," the Doctor said, turning around to look for the TARDIS, but found an angry Dream Lord there, instead.

"Babbling? Honestly? You have to know a better word for that for our fun little game, Doctor, as old as you are! Of course, old age forms old habits, I suppose. The question is; how old? Do you know, Derpy? I know you won't, so there's no point in answering, because nopony knows. How about his real name? Still no. Oh, Celestia, I do love hypothetical questions, don't you, Doctor?"

"Yes, I do, but," the Doctor answered, before being cut off.

"It's a hypothetical question, Doctor, you don't answer it! How have you managed to make it this long without learning the basic rules of speech?"

"I'll have you know that I was there when this language was…" the Doctor angrily began, before being cut off again.

"I thought you would have learned the first time, Doctor! This is just astounding, just how big of a twit you can be!" the Dream Lord loudly mocked, before disappearing again.

The Doctor let out an aggravated grunt before he began to look for his TARDIS.

"Oh, no, you are not leaving me again!" Derpy yelled, before flying after the Doctor.

The Dream Lord was very amused by this turn of events, so amused, he almost wanted to end their little game, and thank all the contestants, but, alas, the game keeps going until the Doctor makes a decision.

Of course, he'd have to inform the Doctor of what he'd be deciding, first.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It took a few minutes of searching for the Doctor to notice two things: One, there are no ponies in Ponyville other than him and Derpy, and Two, the TARDIS definitely isn't there.

"How did I get here?" the Doctor screamed to the sky. Without his TARDIS, he had no way of escape, or even figuring out a way of entrance.

The Dream Lord appeared again, and said, "I can only assumed that after I knocked you out, which was very easy, by the way , that I brought you here myself. Of course, that would mean that my transportation is nearby."

"You brought me here in the TARDIS! That's the only way! You were inside of the TARDIS, I was there with you," the Doctor exclaimed, trying desperately to make sense of this crazy mess.

"Wrong again, Doctor!" the Dream Lord said, before zapping behind him, and saying, "Certainly you've noticed that you feel asleep, and that my name is the DREAM Lord. If you're a Time Pony, that must make me a…Dream Pony, don't you think? Besides, you can't be so daft to forget how much teleporting I've been doing; therefore I couldn't possibly need a ship, even one as precious to you as the TARDIS."

"What do you want, Dream Lord?" Derpy finally asked, amazed that the Doctor had never thought to consider that question.

"Isn't it obvious by now?" the Dream Lord asked, facehooving at the silliness that must be occurring in both of these ponies' brains.

"Honestly, I'd have thought you'd figure it out! Oh, but wait, I forgot, the challenge here hasn't come yet. Besides, you're both too stupid to determine my little game, so I might as well tell you."

The Dream Lord vanished for a brief moment, reappearing in a similar, but noticeably different, interpretation of the Doctor's clothes.

"I'd figured since you've done so much explaining, I might as well dress the part."

The Doctor did not approve. The bow tie wasn't even the same color!

"So, here I am, the master of dreams and sleep, and I hate the Doctor, so what do I do?" the Dream Lord asked himself, then disappeared, and reappeared opposite to where he stood before, dressed as a schoolpony, and answered, "Oh, oh, I know, you put him into two deadly situations, and only one is a dream!"

Back in his twisted version of the Doctor's look, he said, "Very good! Gold star worthy in fact, me! That is what I did! So, Doctor," the Dream Lord said, walking inches away from the Doctor's face, "I'd suggest you'd choose, and choose quickly, because I can promise you, this world's a doozy."

"How will I choose? Do I just tell you, or is it something that's an awful gimmick?"

"You die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Now, Derpy, ask me what happens if you die in reality."

Derpy was about to punch the Dream Lord.

"You die, stupid, that's why it's called reality," she said.

"Very good! You know, Derpy, you're not as dumb as you look," he responded, making the good judgment of vanishing right after he made the statement, because Derpy took a very powerful swing at him, so powerful it threw off her balance completely.

Shaking the dirt off of herself, Derpy said to the Doctor, "Should I even ask how you made an enemy of this guy?"

"I can honestly say that I haven't got the faintest idea."

"That's just great," Derpy said, looking around for the danger that the Dream Lord mentioned.

And then she saw it, and, Celestia, it sure was a doozy.

"Zombie ponies!" she yelled, loud enough to alert them to her location.

The Doctor slammed into Derpy as quickly as he could, carrying her off on his back.

"First rule in the zombie apocalypse, Derpy, never, ever make a loud noise when you see them!" the Doctor said, and took a deep breath, "You should also never run, or be completely defenseless."

Derpy sighed, familiar with this theme of theirs of being entirely unable to fight against even the simplest of enemies. She then wondered if she should even bother to try to figure out why there might be a horde of zombie ponies in abandoned Ponyville, until it hit her.

Nobody left. They all died. They're zombies now.

"Well, this is unexpected," Derpy said.

"What, zombies?" the Doctor asked.

"No, that you know the rules about how to deal with them."

"Why wouldn't I know that?"

"The Dream Lord thought you were pretty dumb."

The Doctor came to a dead stop, and said, "The Dream Lord controls dreams, I control time. He has power over manifestations of ideas, and I can stop you from having those ideas. In comparison, the Dream Lord is nothing."

Derpy did not expect the Doctor being so angered by her comment, and had hoped he would do something silly to lighten the situation.

"I'm nothing now? What, did you think I was just a figment of your imagination, or the result of a weird sort of space pollen? Come on now, Doctor, you're just being silly," the Dream Lord boomed from the sky, invisibly.

"One of these days, someone will get rid of the natural need to sleep, and the Dream Lord will be completely useless," the Doctor said prophetically.

"Really, Doctor? Because that would save me so much time, I'm not even kidding," Derpy said, a little bit excited at the idea of never having to sleep. Then she thought of Luna, who was literally banished from Equestria from ponies sleeping during the night, imagine what would've happened if they didn't have to.

"No, probably not, but we can hope!" the Doctor said, crushing Derpy's dreams, although, it would be better worded as Derpy's hopes in this situation.

The Dream Lord wasn't sure if they would do away with the need to sleep, and was terrified at the idea. King of nightmares, of course he would be afraid of the day.

The Doctor then fully realized the weight of his decision: One world, he gets sucked into a black hole, which even he doesn't know the full effects of, and in the other, he gets eaten alive by zombies.

"This just isn't my dream, I suppose," he said.

The Doctor wondered, for just a moment, exactly how a Dream Pony, a race he'd never heard of, could pilot his TARDIS to a black hole, or enter a void dimension to drop him off here.

Then, he realized, they couldn't.

Unfortunately, he forgot his realization.

The Doctor carried Derpy into a small house, and began looking for something they could use to either escape zombified Ponyville, prove that this was the dream world, or, and he despised this option, help them fight off the zombies. Unfortunately, fighting off the zombies would take far too long, and he wouldn't have enough time to set up a failsafe in the other world, in case this was the dream.

It was only then that he realized that sleeping in one world made him wake up in the other.

"Derpy, I'm going to go to sleep now, okay? Board up the windows and barricade the doors, then go to sleep, too. In the other world, you're going to be in the nightlight room, so you'll need to navigate back to the control room in the dark. It shouldn't be too hard, because you probably memorized my instructions and can go through them backwards, right?"

The Doctor noticed that by the end of his explanation, Derpy had already finished barricading the doors and was asleep, and decided that he should probably take a moment to help her out on the last part.

"Well, at least you're a bit ahead of schedule, Derpy," the Doctor said as he fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The Doctor was already panicking by the time that Derpy navigated her way back to the TARDIS's control room. The blaring sirens and the bright lights, indicating danger, came from seemingly nowhere, with no speakers or light bulbs to speak of. It was as though the room itself was the speaker, and the projector for the lights.

Derpy would've asked what was outside, but saw it through the open doors. Light can't escape from black holes, and although theories state the contrary, this simple fact means that they can't be seen. But, they can be heard. Nothingness, pure and utter nothingness, it has a sound, a powerful sound, like everything in the world, and far beyond, being crushed down into the smallest thing it could be, and then made even smaller.

"So, Doctor, how long have we got before the black hole destroys us?" Derpy asked, fear having woven itself so deep into her voice, the words "I'm afraid" were nearly what she had said in place of inquiry.

The Doctor hadn't the faintest idea. He'd never dealt with a black hole so closely, closely enough that he couldn't see the ring of light around it, the ring that made its presence known amongst the emptiness of space.

"I have no clue," he said.

The sirens got louder and louder, informing the Doctor of immense danger, a level of danger that it would've activated the TARDIS's protocols, ones in place to make itself safe, and, by extension, its passengers, but somepony cut the power to the ship's controls.

Well, not somepony. The Doctor knew that it was the Dream Lord, undeniably. He orchestrated this whole thing, although, it was very unrealistic that he could cut the TARDIS's power and start a zombie apocalypse in Ponyville at the same time, so it was clear that one was a dream. But which one was the fake?

This question burned into the Doctor's mind, like a hot coal through a piece of paper. He couldn't deal with the question, indecision and doubts filling his brain beyond any hope of understanding. He knew that, eventually, they would reach an end in both worlds, but there was no way of knowing in either case. All that mattered was getting safe here, and that couldn't be done.

"What about a white hole?" Derpy asked, "Wouldn't that just shoot us out?"

The Doctor wondered this, as well. Of course, there was no proof that such a thing existed, and if it did, then the light would burn the TARDIS to bits, not to mention what would relatively be a bullet smashing through it at the same time. Their survivability was close to zero, even if a white hole existed.

There was no way out of this scenario, no cheats or tricks, simply nothing. The Doctor was defeated, after all these years, a truly uncountable number, he was caught.

The only hope the Doctor had was to make certain that zombie Ponyville wasn't about to kill them, because that was the only world that he could see himself surviving in.

The one question, the only question, the first question that the Doctor had: was surviving the answer? Is the Doctor surviving the Dream Lord's goal? If so, then what was the point of this entire effort? Is this whole thing just the Dream Lord trying to mess with the Doctor's mind? And what did the Doctor do to the Dream Lord to deserve such a cruel test?

The Doctor looked back on his questions, and realized the answers he had added up to zero help for his situation, so it was time to do what he did best: run in without a plan, and hope absolutely nothing goes wrong.

He certainly had enough practice.

"Okay, Derpy, here's what we're going to do…" he began, building up a train of thought that could lead to making it through this insane adventure.

The Dream Lord appeared again, as if on cue, and said, "There he goes again, that silly little Doctor, thinking he can just rush into everything without any ideas or thoughts! And when he does have a plan, it usually involves saying his name over and over again until somepony gets afraid, or he has another idea!"

"What's the point of this, Dream Lord? If I get it wrong, you kill the only pony that could stop everything terrible in the universe, and if I get it right, then you've wasted all of your time on a pointless excursion in stupidity!" the Doctor said.

"The point is, Doctor, I don't like you, and I can make you sleep, and then mess with you! In fact, I think I might do that…Right now," the Dream Lord exclaimed, evil rushing through his voice, filling it with a laughter that only pure, undeniable evil could create, as he, somehow, snapped his hoof, and the Doctor and Derpy fell to the floor, unconscious.

The Dream Lord looked across at his work, the foundation of his devious and terrible plan at work. He knew that this was only the beginning, and soon, his power would reach far beyond this silliness, this childish feud with the Time Pony, the only Time Pony left.

If he was the Dream Lord, that must make the Doctor the Time Lord.

The Dream Lord chuckled at his revelation, knowing that the Time Ponies once were, in fact, called Time Lords, but that was a long time ago.

There was only one Time Pony left, but there has only ever been one Dream Pony.

He wondered, for a moment, if there are Space Ponies, too, ponies that control space, although that would likely just be the average pony. That made a very interesting trio: the ones that control time, the ones that control space, and the one that controls the mind.

Controlling the mind was far too easy to describe the Dream Lord's work. He did more than control it; he leaves you in control, while he does with it whatever he so chooses. Controlling the mind implies manipulating the thoughts, but that's not what the Dream Lord does. He builds a world, and he controls it, and puts you into it, and you don't even begin to realize what's really going on.

If you did, then you must have noticed his name, the Dream Lord. If you thought about it, the Dream Lord would, of course, control dreams. Nowhere is it implied that he controls reality.

The Doctor realized this as the horde of zombie ponies burst through the barricaded doors of the house that he and Derpy had found.

With this information, it was time for a little bit of sweet revenge.

The Doctor was done with this silly test; it was time to play a game, by his rules. Whether or not the Dream Lord was ready, the Doctor was on his way.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The zombies broke through the defenses only a few moments slower than the time it took Derpy to put them up in the first place. The Doctor taunted her about this with a single comment, and she stared at him with a kind of deadliness that he feared her about as much as the zombie ponies.

Of course, he knew now that the zombie ponies weren't real, so that wasn't saying much.

The Doctor picked up a large stick that lay next to him in the decrepit pile of broken wood and metal that was left in the wake of the zombie onslaught upon the once serene home, and swung upon one of the zombie ponies.

To his terrified surprise, it didn't just disappear like a good dream or bad video game zombie pony would, it just stayed there, twice dead and looking no better for it. The Doctor killed something in cold blood, a pony, no less. He didn't even know if it could think, and hadn't considered that maybe the Dream Lord had hundreds of other ponies inside of his sick and twisted game.

The Doctor shuddered with fear at these thoughts, unable to cope with the idea that he may have killed a pony, just then, and still, the body remained, unmoving. And the other zombies were coming.

Derpy stared at the Doctor, surprised that, for even a moment, he had lashed out against another creature. She knew that he could never do that on purpose, she could see it in his eyes every time they spoke. And yet, he did. He killed a pony, an undead abomination of a pony, but still a pony. Even if this was just a dream, he'd gone beyond his limits, and decimated the entity that now lay re-dead before him.

"Come on, Doctor, we have to go!" she yelled, knowing they had moments, at best, before the rest of the rotting horde of zombie came for them.

"No, we don't."

"Doctor! Come on!"

"I said no. I deserve this."

Derpy didn't know if he was right, she didn't even know if the breath she had wasted trying to get the Doctor to come with her was even real, but she knew that she trusted him, to the end of Equestria. Even if the end of Equestria was staring her in the face, hunger and hatred oozing from every undead pore in its disgusting body.

"Okay, Doctor, I trust you."

The Doctor didn't mean this as a show of trust, he believed that his actions were so terrible that he had to die for them, even if it was only a death in a dream, itself created inside of another dream, which was, of course, made by an insane enemy of the Doctor.

Or maybe the Doctor did mean this as a show of trust. The Doctor did, in fact, have a plan. He knew that both worlds were blatant lies since the moment the Dream Lord said his name, it just took him this long to realize the implications of such a thing.

The Dream Lord had no power over him if he died in both the dreams, which, of course, would jolt him into yet another dream, or reality, and the easiest way to check if it is reality is if the Dream Lord appears. And, obviously, the Dream Lord wouldn't appear.

The Dream Lord was baffled by the Doctor's cleverness, and wondered to himself if this Doctor still didn't know him. Anger boiled through him, disappointment and a sad sense of wasting time not far behind. What was the purpose of this entire adventure if he didn't even get the Doctor after their first scuffle? Or, rather, their second scuffle.

"Time travel," the Dream Lord muttered to no one in particular, disgusted," they think they're amazing for it, stupid Time Ponies, while I hold worlds in the palms of my hands."

It was moments until the Doctor and Derpy would be torn apart by the zombified residents of Ponyville. The Doctor looked amongst the crowd for familiar faces, and regretted it immediately. There were dozens that he knew, from Octavia to her friend Vinyl Scratch, to the oddly appropriately named Fluttershy.

The Doctor gathered rather quickly that the Dream Lord was an enemy from his future, and wondered what he could've done to the pony to get such a terrible torture, in his dreams, no less.

The Doctor and Derpy had thought that their deaths in the dream would be painless, or instant. They were not. For the seconds, although they felt more like hours, that they were torn apart, one pony rose above them, their eyes watering too hard to fully make out its shape. But the color was so powerful, that they'd have to be blind not to see it. A powerful pink, and two shades of it, were the last things that they saw before fading from the undead Equestria forever.

The last thing they heard was far more disturbing. It sounded like a laugh, a feminine laugh, one so innocent, and yet so terrifying, that they were in fear for the last few milliseconds that they existed in that horrible world. What kind of pony laughs at a sight as horrific as watching two ponies be torn apart?

The Doctor woke up in the TARDIS world first, gasping for air, having experienced being on the brink of death too many times to mistake such a thing as simple as waking up. He spat out the taste of copper from his mouth, far too tangible to be as simple as an aftershock of his dream. He was in another world, a legitimate world, and he died there, and now he was back, in another world designed to torture him. Never before, in any nightmare he'd had before, and he had many, had it ever felt like that when he died in a dream. He just woke up. Now, it was like he was reborn. The Doctor did not approve of the feeling.

Derpy was unconscious in the Ponyville world long before she had the chance to be brought here forcefully. Despite the obvious amount of sleeping she was doing, she was still terribly tired.

"Good work, Doctor, you've figured me out! They're both dreams, as you probably guessed by now, being the clever Time Pony you are," the Dream Lord said, having stood by the TARDIS door, waiting.

"There's got to be a catch, Dream Lord. In fact, I know there is one, so you should really just tell me what it is," the Doctor said, speaking underneath his own labored breath, the terror of the last minute of his life too much for even two hearts to handle.

"No catch, Doctor, not yet. You see, as you've probably figured out, this isn't the first time I've met you. It's also not the last time. Those two things, I can assure you. I misjudged you, Doctor, and I apologize for it. I hadn't realized my own goof on your time stream. Anyway," the Dream Lord trailed off, his voice becoming deeper and darker, "I'm off to find you in the point in time exactly that I want you. See you soon!"

"How soon, Dream Lord?"

"Sooner than you think, Doctor," the Dream Lord said playfully, making the Doctor wonder if this whole ordeal was out of playfulness or bad intent. Or, more likely for the Dream Lord, a devious mixture of both, although the Doctor wasn't completely sure about whether or not the Dream Lord would reveal himself a friend or foe. There have been many times that the Doctor has brushed with misunderstanding, and knew better than most how terrible it could become if left unchecked.

"Until then, sir," the Doctor said, taking a bow.

The Dream Lord smiled, and disappeared in a cloud of white smoke, purely for the overdramatic effect it would have. Something in the Doctor's mind told him that he'd still have to deal with the black hole that was still sucking in his possibly imaginary TARDIS and his very real companion. And that something was completely right.

The black hole was now tearing small pieces off of the TARDIS's exterior, the sound of which caused the booming sirens to increase, and then die down, as if they were alive, and a reaction to the TARDIS's pain. The Doctor was sorry that the TARDIS also had to deal with his nightmare, knowing that it, too, was truly alive. Its sirens, however, were not, they were just sirens. The lights, on the other hoof, he wasn't sure about.

"What do you think, Derpy, do we wait to be torn to bits again inside the TARDIS, or jump out and wake up faster?" the Doctor asked, the dark humor of his question leaking out into his speech, creating a sort of sound that was somewhere between sarcasm and stark seriousness, less of a median, but not quite a mixture.

"Well, when's the last time you drifted randomly off into space?" Derpy asked, completely serious.

"I think that was how my 5th regeneration happened, actually!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"5th regeneration? How many have there been?"

"Oh, just 10, I've got a couple more left."

"Ah. How was that experience, then?"

"Oh, it was awful. I've never jumped into space in a dream, though!"

With that, the Doctor jumped out of the TARDIS, its doors torn off in the storm of chaos surrounding the black hole, and was sucked into the deep, seemingly unending abyss.

Derpy decided that she might as well fly right into the event horizon, which seemed like a terrible amount of fun. It was the type of fun you only get to have once, legitimately, at least.

The Doctor and Derpy awoke in what could only be called reality. Not an affectionate name, but it was nice to be within its embrace, the real danger putting all actions into perspective. The Doctor had missed reality, knowing far too well how time had a way of getting away from a pony.

The Doctor had one piece of business to attend to before his next adventure, and he knew it wouldn't be easy, but his last adventure pointed something interesting out to him: his actions have repercussions. He's come face to face with them before, but never quite like that, and it's never affected a companion of his like this did. He risked Derpy's life too many times to be completely acceptable, and it was time to take her home, to prevent more damage.

She really wasn't going to like going home, but she might like the Doctor's last word before he drops her off. He was a pony with a plan, of course.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Derpy somehow managed to yawn. Even she was surprised at the sleepy sound, having just been asleep for longer than she could figure out on her own.

"So, Doctor, where are we headed?" she asked in a happy voice, as though her time spent with the Time Pony was worth all of the psychological torture she'd endured thus far.

"We're going to Ponyville."

"Why are we going there, Doctor? Is there some sort of invasion or crazy villain from Equestria's past?"

"No, Derpy, we're going there so I can drop you off."

She walked directly in front of the Doctor, and looked him in the eye as straight as she physically could, and said, "No."

"Derpy, listen, I'll explain when we get there, but you need to calm down and wait until I drop you off," he explained, trying to calm the storm that would soon be Derpy.

"No, this is silly! We finally get out of this rut of life-risking and terror, and you want to leave me in a town whose biggest excitement is clearing up winter?"

"You don't get it, Derpy, that's all this is, all I am. You risk your life, and when you're through, you live in disappointed fear for the rest of your days. Get out while you still can," the Doctor sadly warned.

"I don't care, Doctor! My whole life, nopony had ever thought to give me as much respect as you do…And obviously they weren't alien time travelling masters of all things cool."

"You know, to me, you're the alien, Derpy!"

"Don't even go there with me, Doctor, this isn't fun and games, this is serious!"

"You didn't even let me finish my explanation, Ms. Hooves! I promise, let me get my last word in, and you won't mind a bit."

"Go ahead then."

"Go ahead with what?"

"Your big, important last word, Doctor, go ahead and tell me it."

"Return."

"What?"

"I'm going to return, Derpy! Our adventures aren't over! I've yet to see the depths of the great and powerful, all-seeing Derpy Hooves!"

"All-seeing?" Derpy asked, until she understood the rather rude joke on her behalf, and responded, "That had better be an affectionate name from the future in my honor, Doctor…"

"Oh, it is."

"Good."

The Doctor was happy that Derpy recovered so quickly from his plan.

"So, you're going to drop me off in Ponyville so we don't mess up time, but we'll still hang out and save the world?"

"Well put!"

Derpy smiled.

"You know what we should do? We should get muffins!"

"Muffins?" the Doctor asked. "It's been years since I've had a muffin."

"You look like you could use a muffin, Doctor, and I know just the place for one!"

"Maybe after Ponyville…"

"No, it's in Ponyville."

"Well, then…Let's get some muffins!"

The TARDIS landed in Ponyville, but a few months after the Doctor intended to be there. He decided it was probably best to put her back in her established point in time to avoid looking like a kidnapper.

Derpy led the way by happily flying, although their destination was obvious, considering that only one establishment in Ponyville sold sugary treats, and that was Sugarcube Corner.

In comparison to the dreary buildings that surrounded it, Sugarcube Corner looked like not only the life of the party, but the very place the party was held, which, in fact, was very common. The 3-story building seemed to be made out of confectionary greatness, parts of it decorated, or perhaps baked, into sections that looked like iced cake. The top of the building was adorned with a giant cupcake, with 3 candles on top. The columns that held up the ceiling over the front door that Derpy and the Doctor were walking into were painted to look like candy canes, so well done that the Doctor desired to give it a quick lick to find out if they were real candy canes.

The interior of the building followed the same theme, all the support beams inside were also possibly real candy canes, and candies and sweets were painted on all the walls, and decorations were attached to the ceiling that were a friendly, inviting pink.

Friendly, inviting, and pink all described the pony that ran Sugarcube Corner almost all of the time it was open, and baked nearly all of its goods.

"Hiya, what can I get you today?" Pinkie Pie excitedly asked, with a volume close to a scream, but not angry, and not quite a yell, either.

"Hi Pinkie Pie! Can we get some muffins?" Derpy said, the pitch of her voice having risen with the word "muffin."

"Okay! Do you want some cupcakes, too? I just made a new recipe for them, and they're so good!"

"No thanks, Pinkie, just the muffins."

"Are you sure?"

The Doctor was worried now, although he couldn't quite figure out why.

"Yes, we are certain we don't want any cupcakes, Pinkie. Even if we did, we don't have enough bits to pay for them," the Doctor said calmly, trying to defuse whatever Pinkie Pie bomb there may be.

"Oh, then I'll just give them to you for free! Please take some, they're to die for!"

The Doctor really wished he didn't have to use the psychic paper, but he knew there were no other options to avoid the pushy Pinkie Pie and her cupcakes.

He pulled out the small, wallet-like holder for the psychic paper, similar to how Police Ponies hold their badges and IDs, and held it at about eye level, and said, "Please, Pinkie Pie, don't make me take action about this."

Pinkie Pie perceived the psychic paper as a Police Pony ID, which, as intended, went with the holder, and decided she would be better off grabbing the muffins.

The Doctor leaned over to Derpy and asked, "Is she usually this devoted to selling cupcakes to random costumers?"

"I've never seen her like this in my life, Doctor. What's weirder, though," Derpy whispered, "is that, usually, she kind of skips and jumps when she goes places, she never just walks."

The Doctor was very worried now. Something, some sort of sense within his brain was warning him to run and fix whatever it was that he changed in the past to make this pony slightly more crazy than usual, but he had no clue as to what he had to do.

Pinkie Pie gave the ponies their muffins, and they left for the TARDIS a bit faster than they normally would have.

The Doctor set the TARDIS for the day after the Nightmare Moon incident, and dropped Derpy off at her house on the outskirts of Ponyville. He only had one thing to take care of: the pictures Princess Celestia wanted.

He headed over to the castle, remembering the past few hours, when something struck him. The pink pony in his dream, the maniacal one that laughed as he was torn apart by zombies, looked an awful lot like Pinkie Pie. In fact, their laughs were nearly identical. Either the Dream Lord knew they were about to visit her to get muffins, or, far worse, she did something in the Doctor's future that would warrant her deranged inclusion to his personal nightmare.

But what?

He was suddenly very glad he did not take the cupcakes.

**Tune in Saturday for the next exciting episode of Whooves, Cyberpony!**


End file.
